Skygazers were in for a celestial delight on Friday, 19 November as the longest partial lunar eclipse of the century turned the moon into a reddish-brown colour, despite not being a blood Moon.
Lunar eclipses occur when the moon passes into the Earth's shadow.
According to NASA, this was the longest such eclipse in nearly 600 years although it was visible only to those residing at North and South America, Eastern Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Region.
The lunar eclipse began at 1:02 AM EST on Friday (11:32 AM IST) and went on on till 7:04 AM EST (5:34 PM IST). At 3:45 AM EST, more than 95 percent of the Moon's disk was in the umbra or the darker part of the shadow, and the Moon appeared red.
The colour was easily seen by most people using binoculars or a telescope. The eclipse peaked at 4.:03 AM EST - the best time to see the red colour.
(With inputs from IANS)
A telescopic visualization of the 2021 total lunar eclipse.
(Photo: NASA's scientific visualization studio)
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